• Child-Related Expenses - Money and the kids are both high on the list of things partners fight about, so putting the two together comes naturally. You might disagree about whether to raise an allowance, plop down a ton of money for sports equipment, or just about any other child-expense scenario you can think of. Accusations of spoiling tend to crop up during these disagreements. {relatedarticles}

• Food - Food can be a hot-button issue in some households, particularly in families that have experience with weight problems or eating disorders and those in which one partner is a vegetarian/vegan and the other is not.

• Dating/Socializing - While parents of young children get to avoid this emotionally fraught topic for another few years, parents of pre-teens are right in the thick of it. You may argue about the dating age, curfews, which friends to disallow, you name it.

Some couples talk about their vision for parenting before they have a child; sometimes even before the wedding. Other couples just decide to wing it and handle things as they come.

Even though you and your spouse may have talked about how to handle the major child-rearing issues before you even had kids, you're bound to encounter a scenario you hadn't planned for.